Here Fishy-Fishy...
On Sat. Sept. 23, 2006, I went fishing for the FIRST time in my life. Three of my coworkers invited me to go with them on a half-day trip (6:30am to 12:30pm) on a sport fishing boat run by H&M Landing in Point Loma. I rented fishing gear for $9 and paid $37 for a spot on the boat. Here we are on the boat:
I thought I might get seasick, so I took a motion sickness pill before we left. (The water was pretty calm, so I probably would have been OK even without taking medicaiton.) On the way out of the San Diego bay, we stopped to get live bait (anchovies). That's when I took these pictures:
It would take about 45 min to get to the fishing areas that are west of Point Loma. Here's a picture of Point Loma as we moved west:
When we finally stopped to fish, we were given some instructions by the crew on how pick up the live bait, hook it, and drop our lines. Basically, you put your hand in one of these bins that have the anchovies, cup your hand under the fish and lift up to get one. Try to get as active a bait as possible. Slippery little things, but don't squeeze too tightly. If one falls to the deck, you can't use it anymore so you just throw it overboard. Once you have one, you jab the fish hook through its eyes! Pretty gnarly when I did it the first time.
We also used cut up squid for bait. (The red stuff in the picture is NOT squid. It's a mackerel that was cut up as bait.)
We were fishing for fish that swam near at the bottom so we had to make sure our weight on our line went all the way down. The fishing that day was BAD. The boat went to 4 or 5 different areas where the boat's fish finder gadget said fish were, but nothing was biting. On top of the fish not biting, there was maximum capacity on the boat so everyone was shoulder to shoulder on the rail. This led to tangled lines, which did not help in keeping the fish close to the boat.
At the end of the trip, each of my co-workers caught at least one fish, but I came up empty. Here's a Sculpin my coworker caught. It has some sort of poison on the spines on its back, but apparently it tastes pretty good.
My coworker gave me the mackerel he caught to take home. I gave it to my mom.
I had better luck on my second fishing trip this past Saturday. That'll be in my next blog.
I thought I might get seasick, so I took a motion sickness pill before we left. (The water was pretty calm, so I probably would have been OK even without taking medicaiton.) On the way out of the San Diego bay, we stopped to get live bait (anchovies). That's when I took these pictures:
It would take about 45 min to get to the fishing areas that are west of Point Loma. Here's a picture of Point Loma as we moved west:
When we finally stopped to fish, we were given some instructions by the crew on how pick up the live bait, hook it, and drop our lines. Basically, you put your hand in one of these bins that have the anchovies, cup your hand under the fish and lift up to get one. Try to get as active a bait as possible. Slippery little things, but don't squeeze too tightly. If one falls to the deck, you can't use it anymore so you just throw it overboard. Once you have one, you jab the fish hook through its eyes! Pretty gnarly when I did it the first time.
We also used cut up squid for bait. (The red stuff in the picture is NOT squid. It's a mackerel that was cut up as bait.)
We were fishing for fish that swam near at the bottom so we had to make sure our weight on our line went all the way down. The fishing that day was BAD. The boat went to 4 or 5 different areas where the boat's fish finder gadget said fish were, but nothing was biting. On top of the fish not biting, there was maximum capacity on the boat so everyone was shoulder to shoulder on the rail. This led to tangled lines, which did not help in keeping the fish close to the boat.
At the end of the trip, each of my co-workers caught at least one fish, but I came up empty. Here's a Sculpin my coworker caught. It has some sort of poison on the spines on its back, but apparently it tastes pretty good.
My coworker gave me the mackerel he caught to take home. I gave it to my mom.
I had better luck on my second fishing trip this past Saturday. That'll be in my next blog.
posted by bert wolfe at
9:59 PM
10 Comments:
Fishing was my mom's favorite pastime. I remember when we all use to go (me, my mom, my brother and her boyfriend) and when we caught the fishes I was responsible for cutting & gutting them (I hated that part) and my mom would do the frying. We would go fishing at man made lakes and most of the time all we caught were those darn blue gills and buffalo fish. Both are small fish and buffalo fish had alot of bones in them.
By
HotFudge, at 16 November, 2006 00:11
HF, would you & Ronin like to go sometime? I'm starting to get a kick out of going. Maybe others might be interested as well.
By
bert wolfe, at 16 November, 2006 14:14
Oh yeah, I forgot to add that I still have never cleaned or gutted a fish yet. The fish that I did catch on my last outing was prepped and fried by Canine's parents. More on this in my next blog.
By
bert wolfe, at 16 November, 2006 14:16
Bert,
It was one of those situations where since I was a minor I was more forced to go than anything; I remember sometimes when I would just beg my mom if I could to stay home. I actually despised the scaling, cleaning and gutting part. But, who knows, Screg may have a different view on fishing since he use to go with his parents.
By
HotFudge, at 22 November, 2006 09:35
Ick, gutting fish. It sounds gross. I'm okay cutting down large, animal shaped hunks of meat but eviscerating is something I haven't done yet. I figure, it's best left to people who know what they're doing. Why risk getting all those nasty acids and rot onto perfectly good meat.
I used to go fishing with my dad alot in Louisiana. I had one of those cheesy bamboo poles with no reel. Sucked ass. I think I might have most my grip on one before it went plunging over the edge.
I remember one of the few times we saw my parents fight was when I brought home a little fish and my mom said it wasn't worth cleaning and cooking because of it's size. I cried and my dad laid into my mom, saying he didn't care how little it was, she would clean and cook it and we'd like it. (Dammit!)
By
Anonymous, at 22 November, 2006 10:10
this little fish story reminds me of when the "ramblers" went grunion hunting in high school. lowery caught a small grunion and left it on the windshield of superman's car as a joke. we found out later that superman's mom actually cooked it. i think my mom would've done the same!
By
caninecologne, at 22 November, 2006 23:48
Gutting sure wasn't fun for me and since the fish were still alive and wiggling made it difficult.
I remember upsetting my mom when I made a comment before gutting about these poor little fish and she would tell me to be quite and gut.
Those bamboo poles sure would bring back memories for my mom. She use to go fishing with my grandpa when she was a little girl in the country part of Louisiana in a small town call "Bonsecur" a.k.a "Moonshine" because there was some bootlegging going on back then and they also went crawdading.
Fishing poles sure have come a long ways.
By
HotFudge, at 25 November, 2006 22:14
ooh, going crawdaddy hunting sounds fun!
i remember when we lived in bremerton, washington, we would go "clamming". no we wouldn't get those huge gigantic penis-looking clams (see lotus's blog on the clam), but cute tiny little ones. they would squirt water through the sand and we would just dig and dig and gather them up in a bucket.
i'm convinced that if we ended up staying there, we'd be all granola'd out.
we also used to pick crababbles, blueberries and regular apples too. we would accompany our parents and their friends fishing. it was gross seeing them put the bait on the hooks. especially fan worms.
i was fascinated by the concept of high tide and low tide and enjoyed seeing the beach when the water was receded----gathering shells and all...
By
caninecologne, at 26 November, 2006 20:41
Clamming and picking various fruits sounds like alot of fun.
By
HotFudge, at 27 November, 2006 10:36
it was pretty enjoyable, especially as kids.
however, i think crabapples taste awful! blueberries and raspberries on the other hand were fun to pick and eat!
By
caninecologne, at 28 November, 2006 20:32
Post a Comment
<< Home